Rose Garden

I'd say that your advice is spot on, especially the sentence I bolded. That was my experience last year when I reached out to a professor, whom I believed thought favorably of me. It was a terribly disappointing experience. Lpr90- If you intend to apply to the same program next year, I'd stay away from questions that may come across as argumentative. If you choose to reach out to specific programs and/or professors, I think you're more likely to get useful feedback if you ask what you can do to strengthen and improve your application to become a more competitive applicant. Make the questions about you, not them. You have nothing to lose by asking and you may actually get some useful feedback in the end. Good luck!

Did you email the CSD department chair? If you haven't, I would try that. Good luck.

Drink chamomile tea to calm your nerves. It really does help. Good luck with your interview!

Excellent post!

Yep. If you haven't, then something isn't right. Once all my transcripts (4) had been received, CSDCAS began to verify them. It took about 2 days to complete the process; it was fast and problem free. I'd give them a call to find out if there is a delay. Good luck!

Awesome post, me-k! I love people that are real and aren't afraid to show it.

I sent you a pm.

It's really hard to say. No one, not even the school's adcom, can predict what this year's applicant pool will look like. Maybe it will be a repeat of last year's stats, maybe lower or higher. You said that you met the program's minimum requirements and were still denied. Sounds like they're looking at more than just scores when making their admission decisions, which (imo) is a balanced approach. If you feel that your GRE scores are what has kept you from getting accepted, then definitely retake it. Have you tried reaching out to the deparment chair to ask if your stats are competititve enough for their program? Good luck!

Jolie- More programs should approach it that way. I know it's more work for the adcom, but I believe it's a better process for all involved. For this application cycle, I'm applying and looking into programs that use a holistic approach and staying away from programs with strict cut offs. I'm retaking the GRE next month in hopes of improving my math score, so we'll see what happens.

Hmm... The professor must have misspoken because the lowest possible GRE score is 260- 130 for each section. OP, I think you should retake the GRE. I shared my experience in another thread; I was rejected because one of my GRE scores didn't meet the school's cut-off. I got a 153 (V) and 144 (Q), the school's cut off was 145. The rest of my application was solid with a high gpa 3.849. The program that I applied to didn't care about any of that. They never even looked at the rest of my application. That one point did me in. BTW, this isn't supposition on my part, I contacted the department chair at the school and she confirmed it. Just give yourself some time to prepare and study for the retake or maybe take a GRE prep course, if that's feasible. Good luck to you and don't give up.

Utah State University offers that course online (COMD 5100). Check out their COMD online program. Good luck!

Did the program that you're applying to not give you specific details on page or word limit? I'd go by what they want.

Thanks for the replies! I ended up entering my 5 transcripts, as I didn't want to deal with any possible delays. It was easy, just time consuming. Glad that's done.

If it concerns you , then address it in your SOP. You don't have to write a detailed paragraph about it, but touch on it and focus more on what you learned from the experience and use it to show your ability to persevere, not give up, etc. Keep it positive. Good luck!

My experience- I only applied to one school due to family commitments and responsibilities. I was denied admission. My UG gpa is 3.849, GRE V 153, Q 144. The program I applied to doesn't consider the AW score in their decision process and they don't require an SOP, so there wasn't an opportunity for me to explain anything. I also had strong letters of recommendations from professors in the admissions committee. Once I found out I had been denied admission, I reached out to the program's director and she confirmed that my application wasn't considered because my Quant. score was 1 point below their cut-off. They never even looked at the rest of my application! I was instantly disqualified because of that one point. It all comes down to the program that you're applying to and how they approach their decisions. Some strictly use GRE scores (though they're not supposed to), gpa or some combination of the two to eliminate applicants. You see applicants with solid academic credentials get rejected by programs. Conversely, you see below average students gain acceptance. This process is stressful, for sure. Good luck to you!